From ff317aee140197e7c52f2f3f4db154d715503d19 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Antti K Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 00:16:45 +0200 Subject: Clearer history exposition --- history.markdown | 11 +++++++++++ origin.markdown | 16 ---------------- 2 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-) create mode 100644 history.markdown delete mode 100644 origin.markdown diff --git a/history.markdown b/history.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a7a659 --- /dev/null +++ b/history.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This program is based Jon A. Maxwell "JAM" `jmaxwell@acm.vt.edu` 's discovery +that X11 keyboard state can be logged without superuser permissions. + +His program `xspy` is an X11 keylogger which output is squarely aimed at +human-readability, which makes it great for (as the name suggests) spying on +someone and quickly making out what they're doing. It has hence been included +in security-focused Linux distributions (BackTrack and BlackArch, at least). + +This is a complete rework of his idea, using a modern C version and with the +aim of producing machine-readable output better suitable for physical key press +statistics, deprioritising human parseability of the output. diff --git a/origin.markdown b/origin.markdown deleted file mode 100644 index 3220566..0000000 --- a/origin.markdown +++ /dev/null @@ -1,16 +0,0 @@ -The `xspy` X11 keylogger was written, according to its source code comments, by -Jon A. Maxwell. The source was found [floating about on the web][1] on Jul -26th, 2014. The `xspy` program has been included in security-focused Linux -distributions (at least BackTrack and BlackArch) seemingly in the same -unchanged source form. - -According the comments, the program was written by Jon A. Maxwell (noted to -also be known as "JAM") with the email address `jmaxwell@acm.vt.edu`. The -author was not contactable. - -The code was rewritten to be more amenable to machine parsing and for -GNU-C11-compatibility by Antti Korpi `an@cyan.io`. To sufficiently distinguish -the completely different API and purpose, it was renamed. - - -[1]: https://www.eigenheimstrasse.de/~ben/keyspeedapplet/xspy.c -- cgit v1.3-2-g0d8e